Dennis Quaid is set to star in the new Paramount+ series, Happy Face. A press release revealed that Quaid, 69, will play the real-life serial killer known as “Happy Face”- because of the smiley faces he drew on evidence where he bragged about his crimes. The series will begin production in the spring.

Quaid joins the previously announced Annaleigh Ashford in the cast of Happy Face; Ashford will portray Happy Face’s daughter, Melissa Moore. The series is inspired by the true story of Moore, which was previously explored in her autobiography ‘Shattered Silence’.

In the series, Happy Face (Quaid) is an incarcerated serial killer who is also Melissa’s (Ashford) once-beloved father. After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. An official synopsis reads: “in a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed. Throughout, she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families and must face a reckoning of her own identity.” 

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